A series hybrid electric vehicle includes a power generator driven by an internal combustion engine, a drive battery capable of storing power generated by the power generator and sensing an SOC that is a state of charge, and a drive motor capable of propelling a vehicle using power generated by the power generator or power stored in the drive battery, and controls operation of the internal combustion engine and charge/discharge of the drive battery by a power generation control device.
Examples of the power generation control of the power generator driven by the internal combustion engine include a control of deciding the generated power on the basis of determination of a battery state and determining the battery state on the basis of the maximum regenerative electric power and the maximum generated power (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 1999-136808), a control of executing/stopping the power generation depending on an SOC that is a state of charge of the battery in which the power generation time varies depending on the vehicle speed (Japanese Patent No. 3200493), and a control of setting a target SOC from a travelling state and converging the SOC to the target SOC (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 1998-150701).